Anyone know about Kodály method recorder?

[Solasum]

My son has been doing recorder lessons this term. I am told the teacher is using Kodály method.

There are stickers stuck over all but one of the holes on the recorder. We have been given a rhythm to learn with ‘d’ and ‘m’ written under some notes. A week ago Peter Pointer, Ruby Ring etc were introduced.

My son can play the rhythm accurately, but it isn’t clear to me what he is supposed to be doing fingering wise. I have asked the teacher and been told to lift ruby ring on r, but there is no r written anywhere.

I can actually play the recorder and read music, but I am completely baffled by how this is supposed to work. Why no real note names? Can anyone explain to me?

Bump

Is it d for do and m for mi, as in do re mi? Do you know the tunes he's trying to play? Also you might want to ask on the Extra curricular board, there are some crack musicians and teachers there.

@NotAnotherJaffaCake !! Yes of course. Why did I not think of that, definitely do re mi. I still don’t really understand how it works in practice though.

No, the tune isn’t a real one. It seems he has only done one so far

Kodaly uses solfege, so do re mi. It is usual, even in Kodaly, to teach B A G first but not all do so I would get your DS to show you what notes he has been learning. Has his class been doing a lot of singing? The basis of the Kodaly method is that technical music theory is a bit arbitrary and confusing for children, especially if their reading isn't fully solid yet, and so they end up memorising music without fully understanding what is going on. Learning using solfege allows children to develop a better ear and more thorough musicianship. Solfege gives a much more through grounding in relative pitch and intervals. The brain can recognise a tune regardless of the key it is in and so pitching comes more naturally without decoding written music getting in the way. Kodaly also thought that the voice was the child's first instrument and so the best way of understanding music was through singing. Kodaly recorder methods are designed to be an extension of the voice so that what has been gained through singing isn't lost. I hope that makes sense.

Yes! They have been doing a lot of singing. He doesn’t seem to have done any notes though, the holes are taped over apart from D

That's kind of what I meant. Some Kodaly teacher prefer to teach notes first that correspond to other things they've been teaching. It can be a thing in Kodaly to teach the lower notes first as they are easier to sing. BAG is relatively arbitrary in learning to play the recorder, it's just the way it's normally taught.
The fact that he only has D makes a lot of sense though. In solfege, do re mi fa so la ti do correspond to each of the notes of a scale. As the descant is in C it makes sense for the scale to be C major-so re is D. When she says "lift ruby ring on r" she means lift the ring finger on re, so D.

@unweavedrainbow thank you. How do I know when r is supposed to be? The only text we have written down only has m and d. Has she forgotten to write something down, or am I missing something else? I am also not sure why elsewhere she has written to lift peter pointer when the F hole is covered over meaning the sound doesn’t change?

Well for C major "re" is D. I would imagine that he should play the rhythm on D. Other than that, I would ask his teacher. For what it's worth though, the Kodaly method is a good recorder method. It teaches that the recorder is an instrument with a long heritage rather than a toy. I would also be pleased that a primary teacher is using a specific music education method, that's always a good sign.

Thank you! Finally I understand